Le Male

Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male, launched in 1995, built its reputation on a fresh mint-and-lavender opening over a warm cardamom-cinnamon heart, finishing in a rich vanilla, sandalwood, tonka and amber base - a genuinely groundbreaking sweet fougere that's stayed one of the most recognisable men's fragrances of the last three decades thanks to that famous sailor-torso bottle. Clean Shaven's version leans on the same lavender-vanilla combination, and the sweetness that made the original stand out is present from the first spray. What's missing is the spice - Gaultier's cardamom and cinnamon heart gives Le Male a warm, slightly exotic edge that keeps the sweetness in check, and the dupe's middle stage is comparatively flat, moving more directly from a mint-lavender top to a plain vanilla-musk base. The result is pleasant and instantly familiar to anyone who knows the original, but noticeably less complex and shorter-lived than the real thing's genuinely impressive longevity. As an easy, crowd-pleasing sweet masculine for a fraction of the price it works well for daytime or a first date, though it won't carry into the evening the way Gaultier's version does.